Dimmers for luminaire systems are used for various applications including to create different lighting modes and for energy saving purposes.
Certain existing luminaire systems provide for light dimming and colour temperature adjustment by utilising several different luminaires systems which, in combination, are used to illuminate a given area with a desired lighting effect. However, this approach introduces additional inconvenience and complexity in terms of having to install the different luminaire systems and their respective separate control interfaces, and then, having to separately synchronise control each of the different luminaire systems to produce the desired lighting effect.
Existing luminaire systems such as incandescent lamps, fluorescent lamps and compact fluorescent lamp (CFL), also utilise phase-cut dimmers to effect dimming which must either be installed in a wall or ceiling, or, which must be integrally manufactured in a portable luminaire unit. In addition to the costs and complexities of installing the phase-cut dimmer, such existing luminaire systems will also require the use of specialised internal control units and/or integrated control interfaces, for instance, typically in the form of a bespoke wall switch control panel, an infra-red (IR) or radio-frequency (RF) remote controller, a smart phone software application, or specialised control cables compatible with protocols such as DALI (Digital Addressable Lighting Interface) or DMX512 and so on. As such, the installation of the phase-cut dimmer, internal control units, control interfaces, and control cables requires additional mounting and electrical wiring which is inconvenient, unduly complex and costly for existing installations which do not have an existing dimmer and control set-up.